Vancouver police tactical officers responded to call at Arco Hotel Wednesday morning
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A woman is dead following an early-morning shooting in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Vancouver police answered a 4 a.m. shots-fired call at the Arco Hotel at 83 West Pender St. and discovered a woman suffering from gunshot wound lying in a hallway inside the six-storey building.
The victim, who has not been identified, later died in hospital, becoming Vancouver’s third homicide victim of 2021.
The shooter fled the scene before officers arrive and there has been no arrest.
Ron Chenier, who lives inside the Arco, said the woman was struck by two rounds fired through a door.
“I ran upstairs and the guy that was with the girl, he ran downstairs … and I went upstairs and saw her lying down,” said Chenier, who knew the victim. “I don’t want to say much about her … She was a good person, I guess.”
The Arco Hotel is a B.C. government-owned supportive housing building operated by Atira Property Management.
Atira operates 15 housing programs in Vancouver for women and children, nine in Surrey, one in Burnaby and one in Richmond. The charity has revenues of more than $40 million a year, of which $22 million goes to staffing.
In January, the nearby Atira-run Gastown Hotel was the site of Vancouver’s first homicide of the year when one man was killed and another seriously injured following a double stabbing inside the rooming house at 112 Water St.
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The Gastown Hotel was also the site of a murder the previous January when 45-year-old Tonya Hyer was found beaten to death in her room. No arrest has been made in Hyer’s killing.
Atira executive director Janice Abbott told Postmedia that none of the incidents were related and Wednesday’s shooting was the result of a dispute between two drug dealers.
The victim, she said, had accompanied her boyfriend to the Arco where he intended to confront a female tenant.
“He was banging on the door and someone in that room shot through the door,” Abbott said. “What’s distressing is the dude watched his girlfriend fall and then casually walked away.”
Abbott said the shooting was witnessed by at least one Atira staff member.
“The guy had been banging on (the door) for a few minutes, so the staff arrived on the scene as the shooting happened. You know that’s a traumatic thing to see” said Abbott, who noted that Atira has clinicians who are working to support affected staff and tenants.
The Arco Hotel is located next door to an inhalation tent operated by the Overdose Prevention Society and funded by Vancouver Coastal Health.
VPD Sgt. Steve Addison said police couldn’t confirm of Wednesday’s shooting was drug related.
“It’s far too early to say … what the exact circumstances are,” he said. “We are still trying to determine exactly what happened.”
Anyone with information regarding Wednesday’s shooting is asked to call the VPD’s homicide unit at 604-717-2500 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
— With files from David Carrigg
sbrown@postmedia.com
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